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Not Drunk, Just Not Sober

Sometimes we Christians wind up a little too...sober! No, not concerning alcohol. We become too sober—as in serious, routine, predictable, and logical—for the spontaneity, creativity, and flexibility required for hearing (Acts 2), seeing (2 Corinthians 5), and understanding (John 3) what God is doing in our midst. This month’s passages require imagination, intuition, and most of all trust.

Soberly, we want everything to make sense, in an orderly and sequential way. Then comes the windstorm. Or a creation “groaning in labor pains.” Worse yet: hardships, beatings, riots, and sleepless nights. Desiring a more linear chain of events, we find ourselves in the “right brain” land of the seemingly irrational.

When the Holy Spirit blows like a wind into our lives and through our moment in history, things are not left tidy and calm. In awe, we wonder where that wind “comes from and where it goes” (John 3:8). Yet if we go with it, we find a deeper understanding and hear one another beyond our contrasting languages and cultures. We might then appear odd enough to the dominant culture that someone will have to announce “these are not drunk, as you suppose” (Acts 2:15).

This windy journey might seem, to our very adult eyes, to include fun-house mirrors and kaleidoscope colors. Becoming childlike again (2 Corinthians 6:13, Romans 8:16) will help. Peculiar things await us on this biblical excursion. So pack some childlike trust, and get a little crazy.

Robert Roth is a writer and social activist in East Lansing, Michigan.

June 4

Birth or Control?

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